The present invention relates to targets and especially to a target for measuring a hit with a laser weapon simulator which can be utilized in a dual role as a live fire target or a laser beam area target.
In the past, it has been common to use a wide variety of targets for military and police training. The targets are typically made of polymer material with either a flat surface or a three dimensional target and may be coated on one side to resemble a person with a weapon. These targets are typically for live fire and whether the target is hit or missed can be determined with an impact sensor. In recent years it has been practiced to provide training with other than live fire such as utilizing a weapon which fires a laser beam rather than a live round of ammunition. To use a laser weapon simulator of this type requires a target that is sensitive to the radiation frequencies of the laser beam which might typically be an infra-red laser beam. Prior weapon simulation targets had the laser radiation detector facing the source of radiation. This leads to the problem of "effective simulation". Effective simulation requires the weapon simulator to have a beam divergence equal to the weapon dispersion. If, for example, a weapon had a one milliradium dispersion then the beam at 10 meters would have a one centimeter diameter beam. This would require the spacing between the detectors to be in the order of one centimeter, and therefore, a large number of detectors would be needed at short range. At a weapon/target range of one kilometer, however, the beam diameter would be one meter and only a few detectors would be required. Thus, close in targets would likely be different than the long range targets because of the high detector density required. The near range target would also be more costly. If the targets are different as a function of range then the range would be required to be a fixed range rather than a situation encounter range, such as a walk through with surprise target exposure. The detector being directly in the beam also eliminates the possibility of a dual function target where live round ammunition or a laser weapon simulator can be used alternatively since live rounds would likely damage the detectors. This would require a change of targets when changing from live rounds to laser beams and would prohibit simultaneous use of the range.
The present invention advantageously provides for the use of a single detector for each target which can be used at any range desired to provide effective simulation at all ranges with no adjustments and would allow the use of conventional live fire targets for laser simulation targets while providing ability of the target to function as a live ammunition target and laser target alternatively or simultaneously. The area laser radiation detector of the present invention would not alter the normal target replacement and would, thus, be cost effective and reliable.